Jefferies Financial Group Initiates Coverage on Littelfuse (NASDAQ:LFUS)

Jefferies Financial Group assumed coverage on shares of Littelfuse (NASDAQ:LFUS - Free Report) in a report published on Tuesday, MarketBeat.com reports. The brokerage issued a hold rating and a $260.00 target price on the technology company's stock.

Separately, StockNews.com lowered Littelfuse from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research note on Saturday, March 30th.

Littelfuse Trading Up 2.4 %

NASDAQ:LFUS traded up $5.59 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, reaching $241.07. The company's stock had a trading volume of 170,407 shares, compared to its average volume of 148,835. The company's fifty day simple moving average is $238.61 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $240.41. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.35, a current ratio of 3.75 and a quick ratio of 2.49. Littelfuse has a twelve month low of $212.80 and a twelve month high of $309.94. The stock has a market cap of $6.01 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.31, a P/E/G ratio of 2.04 and a beta of 1.34.

Littelfuse (NASDAQ:LFUS - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, January 30th. The technology company reported $2.02 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, hitting analysts' consensus estimates of $2.02. Littelfuse had a return on equity of 12.35% and a net margin of 10.98%. The firm had revenue of $533.80 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $535.76 million. During the same period last year, the company earned $3.34 EPS. The firm's quarterly revenue was down 12.9% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts predict that Littelfuse will post 9.66 EPS for the current year.

Littelfuse Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 7th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, February 22nd were paid a $0.65 dividend. This represents a $2.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.08%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, February 21st. Littelfuse's dividend payout ratio is currently 25.15%.

Insider Activity

In other news, SVP Matthew Cole sold 916 shares of Littelfuse stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $248.18, for a total value of $227,332.88. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 5,530 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $1,372,435.40. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other Littelfuse news, SVP Maggie Chu sold 1,522 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $240.74, for a total value of $366,406.28. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 3,086 shares in the company, valued at approximately $742,923.64. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, SVP Matthew Cole sold 916 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $248.18, for a total value of $227,332.88. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 5,530 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $1,372,435.40. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 4,370 shares of company stock valued at $1,064,413 in the last three months. Corporate insiders own 2.30% of the company's stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Littelfuse

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of LFUS. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. boosted its holdings in Littelfuse by 8.5% in the 1st quarter. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. now owns 866 shares of the technology company's stock worth $216,000 after acquiring an additional 68 shares during the period. Citigroup Inc. raised its position in shares of Littelfuse by 2.5% in the 1st quarter. Citigroup Inc. now owns 3,595 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $897,000 after purchasing an additional 89 shares in the last quarter. Bank of Montreal Can raised its position in shares of Littelfuse by 6.0% in the 1st quarter. Bank of Montreal Can now owns 3,711 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $975,000 after purchasing an additional 211 shares in the last quarter. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS raised its position in shares of Littelfuse by 10.5% in the 1st quarter. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS now owns 9,027 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $2,251,000 after purchasing an additional 860 shares in the last quarter. Finally, BlackRock Inc. raised its position in shares of Littelfuse by 1.8% in the 1st quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 2,040,384 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $508,893,000 after purchasing an additional 37,011 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 96.14% of the company's stock.

Littelfuse Company Profile

Littelfuse, Inc designs, manufactures, and sells electronic components, modules, and subassemblies in the Americas, Asia-Pacific, and Europe. The company operates through Electronic, Transportation, and Industrial segments. The Electronics segment offers fuses and fuse accessories, positive temperature coefficient resettable fuses, electromechanical switches and interconnect solutions, polymer electrostatic discharge suppressors, varistors, reed switch based magnetic sensing products, and gas discharge tubes; and discrete transient voltage suppressor (TVS) diodes, TVS diode arrays, protection and switching thyristors, metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistors and diodes, and insulated gate bipolar transistors.